I'm switching gears.
With less than two weeks before Thanksgiving,
why not move my mind toward all the wonderful and amazing things
for which I should be grateful?
I spend so much of my life,
and of my mind-share examining, exploring all that I am not,
or have not achieved.
Thanksgiving is a holiday, a time that soothes my soul from the inside out.
I read a book once about happiness.
And, really the entire book could be summarized in one sentence.
Happiness is being grateful.
There is SO much that I take for granted everyday, so many things that have become givens in our lives that weren't so for the vast majority of man's existence...
Think about it...
I am watching "The Tudors" on hulu and I love being transported through time in a show that goes into real detail of how life was different. "John Adams" the mini-series is an amazing example of "traveling through time" and getting transported...
Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII's confidant and counselor, was beheaded in the mid 1500's for simply being unwilling to take an "oath" that said the king had greater power than the Pope when it came to interpreting God's law in England.
Sir Thomas More wished "good" upon England. He supported the king. He simply could not officially denounce the Pope for fear that his soul would be damned.
Originally, his sentence was to be hung until half dead, then deboweled. They were to burn his bowels in front of him and then quarter his body while he was still alive. The king commuted his sentence to a more humane beheading.
This sounds horrible for poor Mr. More.
But, Mr. More had done the EXACT same thing to countless British subjects - when he burned them at stake for simply believing in the principles of Martin Luther. Sir Thomas More watched many men burn for simply writing letters that promoted Christians to directly interpret the laws of Christ.
We watch and we read history so often like it happened in a different world, and could never happen again.
Yet in many parts of the world, what you believe in, or don't believe in has a material impact on how you will live, what opportunities you will have, and possibly even if you will live.
When I was a boy, my father, because of the times in which he grew up, told me Luther was the devil. He would get angry when I asked questions about it. Through his lifetime, he came to the conclusion that the "Lutheran" religion was the "most-like" the "Catholic" faith... and was comfortable with it (in large part because I married a Lutheran woman) and he wanted and needed to make sense of all of it.
When we got married, we talked to many Catholic priests who would not preside over our ceremony if I did not commit to raising our kids Catholic. We finally found a "Latino" priest that was willing to interpret things more loosely, and both he and the Lutheran pastor presided over our wedding in a Lutheran church.
At a time when my wife and I were trying to launch into our lives and incorporating God and religion into our lives, the Catholic faith left a memorable scar on my rationality and belief about "religion", or, at least about "man's control" of faith.
How would I feel if I was being told I couldn't believe what I truly believe?
How would I feel if friends or acquaintances where burned at stake for peacefully sharing different views of the world?
How would my life be different... and less joyful... if I was being forced into hypocrisy on any level?
How would it feel to have to choose between being true to your intellect vs being around for your children?
So, today, as I start to shift gears toward focusing on Thanksgiving...
I am grateful...
Grateful for the Freedom to believe as I believe...
Grateful for this country making that a core and founding principle...
Grateful to be alive in this time of PEACE and TOLERANCE...
Sure, nothing is perfect... and in a world of billions, extreme opinions will always be part of the dialogue...
But, I am grateful and conscious of my freedom to believe and question and explore...
So very grateful that I can know and love friends from every faith or no faith...
That I have the freedom to come to my own conclusion....
So much for which to be grateful...
So much I take for granted on the majority of my days...
in harmony,
Nestor